Rory roars for Shots

Aldershot ............. 254-3 Chiswick & Lat .... 231-7

RORY COLLINS made full use of a dream batting track to smash a glorious century but Aldershot failed to force a result which would have given their faint promotion hopes a huge lift.

The Australian fringe firstteamer gave a timely nudge to captain Amir Hameed with a magnificent unbeaten 102 and he and youngsters Jack Bromley and Scott Tilson – who both struck half centuries – gave Aldershot a platform for victory with a compelling 254-3.

Unfortunately for Hameed though, Chiswick found the conditions equally as beneficial and they comfortably held on for a share of the spoils with three wickets in hand.

The Shots looked like falling to the curse of the explayer when Vikas Tokas trapped Faisal Abbas for a duck. But, unfortunately for Tokas it wasn't to be his day as he was left to toil on a flat pitch for a return of 1-79.

Meanwhile, Bromley continued to take the attack to the bowlers as he made his maiden first XI half century before he was eventually caught for 59 from the reliable left arm seam of Aman Bhatia.

Collins too was scoring freely, while giving few opportunities to the bowlers, and eventually he and Tilson gave Hameed the luxury of declaring six overs early with the latter finishing on 52no.

Hameed chose to open the Chiswick innings with spin but the bowling and fielding was unusually profligate and the Chiswick opener Aamish Saini worked the ball tidily as he made 32. It was left to the seamers to make the first inroads and Ben Boukhobza taking took Saini’s wicket.

Chiswick looked as if they could be in the hunt for an unlikely run chase, led by Rohit Jhanjharia’s fine 77. But he sealed his own downfall when he was run out attempting a third run to Bobby Gill’s throw from the boundary.

Gill then followed that up with an economical spell which yielded 2-47, although he was unlucky not to add more, but despite the pressure, Harpreet Bhatia (32) and Leo Glover (40) helped see the home safe to safety.

Despite having the better of the draw with 13 points to Chiswick’s six, Aldershot slid to sixth in Division 2B ahead of this Saturday’s visit of rock bottom Slough II.